Here are a few of my suggestions based on observations from being involved with this airline...Unfortunately, the public has little idea of the structural problems currently dividing united and only hears or experiences negative aspects as reported...Let me say that there is a tremendous desire among the employees to be able to unleash our full potential in providing the best product and service available...To help achieve these aims changes need to be made...

1-Replace the current ceo and his lieutenants and have the board of directors actively search and recruit the most qualified candidate who will make employees a top priority...A strong leader is necessary to rally and improve the morale of the troops...This person needs to be honest and fair and work with integrity...He must make his management team at all levels be held accountable not only to performance goals but in the way they manage their employees in an efficient and productive way...Currently, employees have little respect for top management and it is because they have not been forthcoming and honest and have managed to undo any goodwill built up during the esop period...Middle management have little accountability and bad managers who meet performance goals are allowed to continue in their careers...The next ceo and his team must have vision and creativity and the ability to work with the various work groups to lead us into the future...

2-Improve united's ability to be flexible in it's route structure and be more receptive to fast-moving changes in the competitive airline industry...Too often, aircraft available seats are underutilized in markets that are oversaturated with flights...Achieving this will mean working closely with pilots and flight crews and their respective contracts...

3-Reducing overall expenses...No doubt, too much is being wasted in numerous areas and reductions can be achieved without sacrificing safety or quality...

4-Institue a comprehensive suggestion input program...At one time, united did have a program to help improve productivity and reduce expenses and really had employees motivated because it was one way to have a voice in the company they worked for...For such a program to work again, it has to address every response seriously and have an effective follow-up...Input should be allowed to encompass a wide range of issues...

5-Allow employees to regularly evaluate their respective management and superviors and use this as a tool to retain only top quality management candidates...Too often in the past evaluations were solicited and not acted upon...Emoployees are annually evaluated, so why shouldn't management have the same done by their employees?

6-Customer service...United does have training in providing excellent customer service...What needs to done is follow and monitoring of this service and retraining if necessary...One of the biggest gripes among employees is that some are trained and not monitored and no one but the public is aware of bad levels of service...Also, staffing should not be reduced just to cut expenses...For service to be a priority, staffing has to be the utmost priority...Employee morale and productivity suffers when staffing levels fall below minimum to accomodate cutbacks in expenses...

6-Reward all employees with real incentives...Continental has the right idea in giving it's employees a monetary reward when the company achieves on time goals...

7-Using codeshare can be an effective tool, although some might argue it also costs jobs...But efficient alternatives need to be used when economies of scale dictate it...However, ensuring that the product provided by other carriers is of the same quality should be a top priority and has been a subject of concern in the past and present...

8-Use this current downturn in the airline economy to reavaluate all aspects of the company for reorganization...Use it to position the company with strategies and goals for the future when business begins to pick up...Aggressively promote fare sales...Why bother if the airline is going to keep quiet about it and no one knows about it?...The country is in a temporary negative pyschological mood...While fare sales may not immediately return airlines to profitability, it won't hurt to rally the flying public with attractive inducements...

Finally, let me add that no wants this airline to succeed more than it's own employees...All they need are the tools and strong leadership...Thank you

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